U.S. OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP 2021

June 17, 2021

Sahith Theegala

Torrey Pines Golf Course

Quick Quotes

Q. U.S. Open being held at Torrey Pines you're a local. What did that mean to you being able to play in a U.S. Open in your home state?

SAHITH THEEGALA: Yeah, it's awesome. I had a lot of family and friends come out today, which was great and support me. Yeah, hour and a half drive away from where I grew up, so it was really cool to be able to just hop in my car and say I'm driving to the U.S. Open and Torrey Pines. And I'm obviously super comfortable with the conditions just because I grew up on poa annua and Kikuyu. So, yeah, it means a lot to me that I ended up qualifying for this.

Q. You're going to go down in the record books as being the person that hit the first ball this morning. What does that mean to you?

SAHITH THEEGALA: Oh, it means a lot. It was really cool. Such a cool experience. I know it got a little bit delayed there, but that's something I'm never going to forget for sure, hitting the first tee shot at a major, I'm going to look back at one of the coolest moments of my golf career, for sure.

Q. You mentioned you grew up playing here. How were the course conditions today versus what you're used to when you come to Torrey Pines South?

SAHITH THEEGALA: They're obviously very tough. Greens are a little bit firmer, rough is kind of patchy. It's tough for sure. It's definitely tougher and firmer than I've played it before, but it's still a really fair test and I think it played really solid out there. Yeah, I was happy with the way that -- or I felt like the golf course was playing really fair and, yeah, definitely a little bit firmer, that's definitely a big thing.

Q. Last question, going into tomorrow any changes in your game plan?

SAHITH THEEGALA: Just going to go work on a few things and stick to the fundamentals. Just got to hit more fairways, I think I only hit five or six fairways today. So try and maybe even dial back a little bit, because the fairways are so firm that you're getting a lot of roll, so maybe hit less than driver on some of the tees to put it in the short grass, because it's super important.